News and interesting stuff about the world of Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts

September 26, 2016

A History of Redwood Empire Arena's Peanuts Ice Shows

(This special post is by 5CP Associate Editor Gayna Lamb-Bang.)A recent trip to Knott’s Berry Farm featured a wonderful
Peanuts ice show, called Blockbuster
Beagle. I was reminded
immediately of the fantastic Christmas ice shows once held annually at the
Redwood Empire Ice Skating Arena, in Santa Rosa, California.

1983 summer show program

Redwood Empire, a lovely, Swiss Chalet-style skating rink, was
a gift to the Santa Rosa community from Charles M. Schulz, who’d been
distressed over the closure of the city’s only other ice rink.The opening gala, on April 28, 1969, starred
1968 Olympic Gold Medalist Peggy Fleming, with music provided by the Vince
Guaraldi Trio.

Schulz’s beloved Christmas ice shows didn’t begin
immediately; indeed, the venue catered mostly to local families and hockey
teams for the first decade. Starting in 1979, Redwood Empire’s schedule began
to feature professional ice shows, presented in the summer and autumn.

1985 summer show program

The first, in July 1979, honored the rink’s 10th anniversary.
That show, called Ice Decade, also starred Fleming, in
keeping with the earlier opening day celebration.

For the next several years, such professional productions
alternated with spring ice shows provided by the Santa Rosa Figure Skating
Club; the first of these was presented in 1980, followed by others in ’82 and
’84.

In July 1981, Love Is
Here starred British competitive
figure skater Robin Cousins, a 1980 Olympic Gold Medalist and 1980 European champion.

1986 holiday show

July 1983’s show, Perhaps
Love, also starred Cousins.

Flashbeagle, in July
1985, featured American figure skater Scott Hamilton, a 1984 Olympic Gold
Medalist, and winner of four consecutive World Championships.

The following year, 1986, marked the debut of the beloved
Christmas shows.

Schulz truly loved producing all of Redwood Empire’s
shows.As he noted, in a quote
supplied by The Charles M. Schulz Museum, “The thing I enjoy most of all, even
more than drawing cartoons, is putting together an ice show… I think that is
the ultimate in happiness.”He
produced all the ice shows until he died in February 2000.His daughter, Jill Schulz, took over
for the final four ice shows, from 2000-03.

1987 holiday show program

A tradition begins

All the Christmas shows featured beautiful costumes,
fantastic sets and very impressive choreography and skating.Many of the day’s top skaters were
special guests, including Dorothy Hamill, Scott Hamilton, Toller Cranston,
Robin Cousins, Charlie Tickner and Richard Dwyer (aka Mr. Debonair).

The biggest star of all, of course, was Snoopy: He always
appeared in several numbers each year.Judy Sladky, a five-time U.S. National Champion ice dancer, is the performer
behind (or within) Snoopy.

1989 holiday show

Sladky’s career as the World-Famous Beagle began with a CBS
television special, Snoopy’s Musical on
Ice, which aired on May 24, 1978. She subsequently made numerous public
appearances as Snoopy, and played him in 1985’s Flashbeagle ice show. For the next six years, skater Laura Porter
occasionally took on the role of the World-Famous Beagle ... but, starting in
1992, Sladky became the “exclusive Snoopy.”

Dwyer also was in many of the shows.After winning Novice and Junior
National Championships, he signed on with the Ice Follies at age 14, in
1950.He’s most famous for
portraying “Mr. Debonair,” skating alongside six beautiful women, all dressed
in glamorous gowns.Dwyer always would
give a dozen red roses to a lucky “grandmotherly type” lady sitting in a front
row seat.

1990 holiday show program

Two of Schulz’s daughters, Amy and Jill, performed in some
of the Redwood Empire shows.Amy
skated in the earlier 1980s shows; Jill skated in some of those early shows and
also in quite a few of the holiday productions (by which point she was a Gold Medal
figure skater).She later
introduced in-line skating to the seasonal productions.

The incredible costumes for all of the Redwood Empire
Christmas shows were designed by Jennifer Lageberg.Thanks to her own background as an ice skater, she had an
amazing understanding of costumes.She designed, on average, 200 costumes for each show.

1991 holiday show program

Karen Kresge directed and choreographed all the Christmas shows.Since 2000, she has been busy with all
sorts of other ice productions, including directing and choreographing the
Knott’s Berry Farm Blockbuster Beagle
show, which inspired this blog entry. (See below for additional information about her Peanuts-themed activities at Knott's.)

That first Christmas show — which ran Dec. 19-28, 1986, and
was called Snoopy’s Wonderful Magical
Christmas — starred Scott Hamilton; Paul Heath, British National Men’s Figure
Skating Champion; Kresge (an Ice Follies star at that point); and Jill Schulz.

The show was a major hit, and for the next several years —
until word began to spread — the annual productions were an “open secret” among
Santa Rosa’s citizens. As publicity generated additional interest, the
schedules expanded — often including two shows per day — to accommodate a
growing number of fans.

1993 holiday show

The tradition
continues

[Note: Detailed
information on some of the early Christmas shows remains sketchy; these entries
will be enhanced as future research permits.]

• Dec. 19-28, 1992: A
Christmas Portrait, starring Robin Cousins; Toller Cranston, a Canadian
National Champion and Olympic Bronze Medalist; Cindy Stuart, an original
members of the American Theater Company; and Terry Pagano and Tony Paul, World
Professional Pair Silver Medalists.

• Dec. 5-29, 1996: Snoopy’s
Swingin’ Christmas, starring Scott Williams, a U.S. Open Championship and
World Professional Champion; Ellicia Shepherd-Wilkes and Art Kramer, stars of
Paramount’s Great America Ice Revue; and Cindy Stuart and Richard Dwyer.

1996 holiday show program

• Dec. 5-28, 1997: A
Cool Christmas, starring Lisa Marie Allen, a 1975 United States Junior
Champion and 1997 American Ladies Open Champion; Anita Hartshorn and Frank
Sweiding, World Professional Champions and U.S. Professional Gold Medalists; and
Cindy Stuart and Richard Dwyer.

• Dec. 4-29, 1998: ’Tis
the Season, starring Christine and Dion Beleznay, 1998 American Open Silver
Medalists, and stars of Walt Disney’s World
on Ice; Jeri Campbell, U.S. Open Challenge Cup Champion, and star of Walt
Disney’s World on Ice; Doug Mattis, American
Open Champion and U.S. Open Professional Champion; and Richard Dwyer and Cindy
Stuart.

2002 holiday show program

• Dec. 2-28, 1999: A
Christmas Celebration, starring Anita Hartshorn and Frank Sweiding; Aren
Neilsen, National Senior Competitor and U.S. World Team member; Simone
Grigorescu, a Junior Ladies Champion and 1985 World Professional Champion; and
Richard Dwyer.

• Dec. 7-23, 2001: It’s
All About Christmas, Snoopy, starring Rory Flack Burghart, an American Open
Pro Skating Champion; Eric Millot, a French National Champion; Rosanna Tovi, a U.S.
National Medalist and International Champion; and Andrei Bannikov, a Russian
National Medalist.

• Dec. 11-23, 2003: Merry
Christmas Snoopy, starring Eric Millot; Matthew Evers, a 1998 U.S. Junior
Pairs Champion and member of the U.S. International Team; and Ellicia Shepherd,
a U.S. Figure Skating Team Singles and Pair Gold Medalist.

********

Knott’s
Berry Farm opened Camp Snoopy, the six-acre, Peanuts-themed children’s section
of the amusement park, in 1983. Among other attractions, it features the
2,000-seat Charles M. Schulz Theater, which opened in July 2000. This section of the park was refurbished
in 2013; after months of work, it reopened with new rides — and lots of smiles —
in June 2014.

Concurrent
with the final few holiday ice shows at the Redwood Empire Ice Arena, similar Peanuts
character ice shows also began running in the Knott’s theater. Kresge — on
behalf of Woodstock Ice Productions, owned and run by Charles M. Schulz’s
daughter, Jill — has created, directed and choreographed Knott’s summer and
holiday ice shows since 2000.